Nathan Cleverly’s dream of a Millennium Stadium mega-fight may have gone up in smoke following Bernard Hopkins’ farcical defeat in Los Angeles on Saturday night, but the Welshman is still intent on making a global impression.

Nathan Cleverly’s dream of a Millennium Stadium mega-fight may have gone up in smoke following Bernard Hopkins’ farcical defeat in Los Angeles on Saturday night, but the Welshman is still intent on making a global impression.

Cleverly outpointed domestic rival Tony Bellew via majority decision to retain his WBO light-heavyweight title in Liverpool on Saturday night, then spoke of his desire to haul legend Hopkins over to Wales.

But, hours later, Hopkins failed to keep his side of any potential bargain after being dumped to defeat by Chad Dawson, forcing Cleverly to look elsewhere in order to gain a coveted unification showdown.

The unbeaten Cleverly showed true class in repelling the powerful challenge of Bellew in a storming, non-stop contest, in which he claimed the judges’ 117-112, 116-113, 114-114 verdicts.

Afterwards, Cleverly suggested the Kazakh WBA champion Beibut Shumenov as a possible future foe, admitting: “My next stage could be a unification fight against Shumenov. I’d love to become a unified champion.”

Cleverly was stretched to the limit by Bellew, who had jumped up a number of levels to gain the fight on the back of a confrontational promotional campaign, but who proved he belonged in such elevated company.

Bellew’s overhand rights caused problems for the champion early on, but once Cleverly settled, his body shots and his work up close allowed him to edge most of the contest’s close rounds.

The relentless pace continued all the way to the final bell, with Bellew landing a crashing right hand in the 10th and Cleverly responding in the 11th with a pair of uppercuts and an inch-perfect left hook.

Putting the pre-fight rancour aside, Cleverly said: “Tony’s one of the best trainers out there and proved it. But ultimately I wanted to prove I’m a worthy champion by coming into an opponent’s back yard and winning.

“I think Tony thought I would crumble under his power punches and obviously I said a few things back to him. But deep down I was enjoying it, sucking it up and putting on a true fighting display.”

Bellew, whose options have increased despite his defeat, may now be directed towards the European title.

And while a rematch – if both keep winning – is probable, it is likely to have to wait.

Bellew said: “This is far from the end for me. I take heart from someone like Nigel Benn getting stopped by Michael Watson and coming back and beating the fighters he did. He is an idol of mine and if he can do it so can I.

“Nathan showed he is far from a one-dimensional fighter, and I have got a lot of respect for him. He throws a lot of punches and he hit me with a lot of shots. He is a good champion.”

Olympic champion James Degale scraped through an equally tough contest against Poland’s Piotr Wilczewski to take the European super-middleweight title on another majority decision, 115-113 (twice), 114-114.

Degale’s work lacked his usual sharpness, and he admitted he was hurt by a right hook to the temple in the fifth round before he regrouped to eventually grind down the tiring Pole and take his title.

Degale said: “I wasn’t at my best and I’ve still got a lot to learn. But I showed a lot of qualities in there against a very strong opponent.

“I told myself after I lost to George Groves that I would never let something like that happen to me again.”

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